Archive for the 'Offseason' Tag Under 'Ducks' Category

The Register sent three of its interns to cover the Kings' Stanley Cup parade on Thursday at Staples Center with the assignment to capture the color of the moment.

So they attacked the assignment with cameras and notebooks in hand. They returned with some great photos and some surprising comments from Kings' fans … well, maybe not that surprising. Some of them used this opportunity to take a shot at the Ducks.

“Let's put it this way, we made the Stanley Cup championship more legit than Anaheim did five years ago,” said Christian Allen, 23, of Gardena. “Let's put it this way, they had like 5,000 people in their parking lot, we got a parade going between 5th and Figueroa all the way down here.

“They're probably expecting more than a couple 100,000 people coming down here. To all the Ducks fans out there, look at what we got. Go Kings.”

Does it feel like the weekend of June 25-26 can't get here fast enough?

The consolation prize for the Ducks not making the Stanley Cup playoffs this season is that they'll have two picks in the first round, one of which coming from Philadelphia in the Chris Pronger trade at last season's draft.

Right now, the Ducks have their own pick at 12th overall but they figure to be the biggest fan for whoever faces for the Flyers in the second round.

Why? The Ducks would also have the No. 16 pick but if Philadelphia advances to the Eastern Conference finals, that pick would slip all the way down to No. 27 at best as the conference finalists will have the final four picks in the first round.

Two of the NHL's biggest events -- the All-Star game and the annual entry draft -- are something that the Ducks want in on.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was in Los Angeles to attend Game 4 of the Kings-Canucks first-round series and also do some advance work ahead of the draft that will be at Staples Center on June 25-26.

Following a contentious line of questioning that saw him vigorously defending NHL director of hockey operations Mike Murphy and the league's video review system, Bettman touched on prenatalvitaminsnow.net a number of other topics and responded to a question I asked about the Honda Center hosting either showcase event.

"We had 14 clubs that put in bids for either the draft or the All-Star game for any number of years that we were starting to look at," Bettman said. "Anaheim was in that mix. "Which of the elements of that mix they put in for, I don't recall. But I know that they did put in an expressed interest in either one or both of the events in insurancecompanynow.net one of three years."

Tim Ryan, the Ducks' chief operating officer and top executive for the arena, confirmed the club's deep interest.

For those that haven't heard yet, some big Pacific Division finally came down Saturday when San Jose acquired left wing Dany Heatley and a fifth round pick in the 2010 draft from Ottawa for right wing Jonathan Cheechoo, left wing Milan Michalek and San Jose's second round pick in the 2010 draft.

Did San Jose get better? Worse? Are they the top team in the Pacific Division?

Heatley, a 39-goal scorer last season, had been a fixture on Ottawa's Big Line with Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza.

The Senators, with that top line, fell to the Ducks, 4-1, in the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals.